enuff4life

Long story short,

I opened sunroof and rained... water soaked/damaged shift assembly and center console area. It was fine while I was driving back to home, but next day a blue smoke came out from center console area. Dearler quoted shifter assembly and wire harness replacement since there were a burnt mark on most of switches(especially snow button). They also scanned system and found 8 error codes

Luckly, insurance company will cover for total of $4k, However, once new harness came in, all error (not communicating) codes were gone except ECM

After harness replacement, VDC & Slip light came on and dealer is asking to replace ECM, but insurance wouldn't want to do it since the light did not come up initially(picture) and there is no sign of burnt on ecm and connecting port.

Dealer is stating that the core malfunction would prevent any of other 2 lights to turn on since no communication with ECM. After the harness is replaced, they are now communicating with ECM and showing the 2 lights.

Here is my question....
1. Does above statement makes sense?
2. Would dealer messed up the ECM or other communication harness while they were replacing it? Or are they telling me the truth?
3. If dealer is right, how should I convey the insurance company ECM is malfunctioning with rain?

The attached pictures are before the replacement and after

For side note, before the incident, I had no TPMS on passenger side(tried to transfer to new wheel, but broke it while I was doing it) and as you can see the lights are gone magically... Would this mean, it is not still communicating?

Surfnazi

You just need to lean on your adjuster to get it covered. Have your service writer also send in documents

enuff4life

well adjuster is saying there is no burnt mark on actual ECM so they can't cover it under water related issue period...

I think dealer should prove the ECM is died because of water, but they are very passive on it...

saywat?

iTrader: (3)

wow im a little suprised an adjuster would go that far to actually go crawl under there and look at the ecm? and burnt marks is not the only sign of an electrical device failing. wth lol

stealthee

I got to agree. I repair battery chargers as part of my line of work. I have had boards with burn marks showing obvious failure point, but the same board on multiple chargers has shown no signs of why it failed.

In your case water caused failure of the shifter assembly, so it would be a direct correlation that if the ECU has failed at the same time then the water was the cause.

enuff4life

For an update. Abs and ecm is not still communicating and quoted another 6 grand to fix it which total of 10k... Insurance won't pay and they wouldn't consider it as totalled since it is already spent 4k. Should I get a lawyer?

saywat?

iTrader: (3)

u should thank god and take the money from insurance and buy a new car

enuff4life

Nah they wouldn't consider as totalled... If I had 10k quote initially, they might just have totalled it

enuff4life

Another update,

Dealer contacted the insurance and the insurance is going to cover ECU first. The adjuster hasn't come to get detailed quote from dealer yet, but dealer personally showed me the rest of parts to get it fixed for

1. ECM
2. Actuator & ECU arm
3. ABS is still failing,but they didn't even include on the quote yet because they are going to "try" to replace ECM first.
$5.5k addition and total of $9.5k at this moment.

There is a high chance that insurance will total the car since my car would be worth at $8k and maryland total loss is 75%.

HOWEVER, the insurance is claiming that if they total it they are going to deduct whatever they paid for the shop
$8k(my estimate value) - $4k(repair cost so far) = $4k (that I will recieve...)

This is total nonsense since they are going to deduct the repair. Shouldn't I walk away with the check of $8k and they deal with the cost?


Thanks in advance!

saywat?

iTrader: (3)

wat insurance is this? and wtf is an ecu arm?